Fiji Still Trying to Meet Biodiversity, Ocean Protection Commitment: Rabuka

Adecade since our first ocean conference, we are still struggling to meet our biodiversity nature and ocean protection commitments. This statement was made by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka during the 8th Our Oceans Conference in Panama this week. In his address at the conference, Mr Rabuka said despite our challenges, “we will not give up”. “Our commitment and determination can only be achieved with more resources and robust international legal framework for action,” Mr Rabuka said.

“As custodians of what we call the Blue Pacific, we are united and ready to play our part to help planet earth and ensure our collective survival.

“That is the very reason for our presence here at this Our Ocean Conference. “Last week I presided over a meeting of Pacific Island Forum leaders in Fiji attended by 18 Pacific leaders and the outcome of the meeting recognised that the ocean is central to our collective existence and our survival,” Mr Rabuka added.

He said as custodians and stewards, we must ensure that our people can continue to benefit from our resources through sustainable development.

Shouldering the responsibility

Mr Rabuka said we, the small developing country in the Pacific, could only shoulder that responsibility with the support of all our global partners, including our friends from Central and Southern America.

“Our discussions must focus on reaching consensus to deepen global action, to reduce climate impact on our oceans,” he said. “We are here to talk about solutions. Solutions that are relevant and applicable to all our interests. “Fiji has made some progress in creating space for sustainable investment in our blue economy to combat climate induced development challenges in collaboration with the Global Fund for Coral Reefs and the UN Pacific Offices. “I thank the President of Palau for bringing up a small ceremony we have in our island countries. We call it at home taboo. If one achieves this, certain parts of fishing grounds or fishing rights areas would be banned.

“We are not allowed to go and fish in those areas because they notice the breeding parts and areas of certain fish.

“It has been happening for centuries even before people or man tried measuring the destruction of the environment because it was part of life for them.

“They almost could count the fish and various species that come out to the area, village shores.

“So they decided we’re getting less. Let’s stop fishing in these areas because they breed between these months. It’s for our survival,” Mr Rabuka said.

Fiji’s work with our partners

He highlighted that Fiji was working in partnership with the private sector in Fiji to invest in reef conservation and regeneration.

He said some progress had been made in the implementation of our commitment to locally managed marine areas network to support sustainable income generation, but moreover, still remained to be done.

He also added that the Government had placed priority to resettle communities.

“We like to settle communities. And very soon we will be settling others because the sea is eating into our villages,” Mr Rabuka said.

“These are enormous challenges for us.

“Fiji seeks to revitalise its aquaculture sector through publicprivate partnerships that support state of the art hatchery facilities targeting commercial and community-based projects and diversification of our export base using sustainable aquaculture.

“We are also working on establishing carbon neutral link energy sources although at a very slow pace.

“This has been a tough path for Fiji due to technological limitation and lack of infrastructure.

“The support from both bilateral and multilevel partners present at the conference to co-finance our blue bound investments and provide credit guaranteed solutions to help us access affordable ocean finances at mere concessionary rates is necessary and much appreciated.”